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Speed of VFD when charging system?

13 posts
  1. Melvin Waldron
    Melvin Waldron avatar
    43 posts
    3/9/2012 1:03 PM
    I am lucky enough to have a VFD system, I have always tried to slowly fill the lines with the VFD in manual but sometimes I get impatient, so I was just wondering at what RPMs and flow rates you all use if you have VFD available to you? (right now I am at 550 rpms and of course flow changes as the pressure starts to build but I am guessing somewhere around the 400 gpm range? (as we get some water flowing then we are slowly going from hole to hole and filling those lines too)

    Mel

    Melvin H. Waldron III, CGCS, Horton Smith Golf Course, City of Springfield/Greene County MO

  2. Wallace Jeffrey V
    Wallace Jeffrey V avatar
    3/9/2012 4:03 PM
    Melvin Waldron, CGCS said: I am lucky enough to have a VFD system, I have always tried to slowly fill the lines with the VFD in manual but sometimes I get impatient, so I was just wondering at what RPMs and flow rates you all use if you have VFD available to you? (right now I am at 550 rpms and of course flow changes as the pressure starts to build but I am guessing somewhere around the 400 gpm range? (as we get some water flowing then we are slowly going from hole to hole and filling those lines too)

    Mel


    Mel,

    Impatience is a virtue. Read a magazine, smoke a cigar, whatever. But don't touch that manual speed knob! You're pushing a lot of air out of the system. And if someone misses opening a head.....you'll have a rocket. Pretty cool to watch a head fly a hundred feet straight up, but darn....then you gotta fix it. Take her easy.....she'll get done....



  3. Clay Putnam
    Clay Putnam avatar
    33 posts
    3/9/2012 6:03 PM
    Knob toucher...



  4. Spotts David A
    Spotts David A avatar
    3/10/2012 4:03 AM
    I use manual setting, low pressure switch off and stay between 0-250GPM while opening and closing valves, quick couplers around each greens, and sprinklers in high spots. Might take all day but never saw the rocket that was in previous post. Takes all day because I have no asst. or irrigation tech, etc but it's well worth the time.



  5. Robert Crockett
    Robert Crockett avatar
    4 posts
    3/10/2012 8:03 AM
    David Spotts said: I use manual setting, low pressure switch off and stay between 0-250GPM while opening and closing valves, quick couplers around each greens, and sprinklers in high spots. Might take all day but never saw the rocket that was in previous post. Takes all day because I have no asst. or irrigation tech, etc but it's well worth the time.

    I have 2 VFD's, and a 5hp jocky separate from the VFD's. About 100gpm. When I start pressuring up, just like Mr. Wallace says, read a magazine....when I get up to 30psi, I started bleeding out air with my hand held...I would rather see low pressure with multiple heads on. Then I start closing heads and building pressure. Takes from 45 mins to 1.5hrs... My jocky is a (Cycle-Stop) with a pressure tank for shock absorption. I have 2 (Danfous) VFD drives. One is the Master and the other is a Slave. They have Intel, which allows both of them to communicate with each other, so they can be more efficient. Installled it last year In House, programed in the parameters and our energy consumption went down 40%. Pipe faults went down 95%. Cost (In House Install) was a mear $26,000.00.



  6. McCallum David K
    McCallum David K avatar
    3/12/2012 8:03 AM
    We have numerous lake fill lines and lines that dump into the bayou when bringing the system back up after being down. These are 2 1/2" and we can remove the air fairly quickly if we open enough of them. We begin using just the jockey pump before turning on one of the other pumps to assist in recharging the lines. But again ours is seldom down, even during the winter months.



  7. Michael Kriz
    Michael Kriz avatar
    0 posts
    3/12/2012 4:03 PM
    Manual or "hand" mode, using our 25hp motor/pump. Our keyboard is programmed to only go as low as 40hz which is fine for slooowwwwly filling the mains. Once pressure begins to creep up we open "something" and continue to raise hz until we near our set pressure target and then switch to auto mode.



  8. Keith Fellenstein
    Keith Fellenstein avatar
    0 posts
    3/13/2012 10:03 AM
    Try to keep it between 200 and 300 gpm. Takes all day but worth it.



  9. Baker Daniel
    Baker Daniel avatar
    3/15/2012 8:03 AM
    Am I the only guy who has a restart program in my operating software? I thought those were standard on VFD systems. I open four heads for 20 minutes via the radio and flip a switch and walk away. The VFD winds slowly and fills the lines over about 30 minutes and then pressures up. When you pay for the electronic brain why touch the manual settings?

    It may be worth noting that we have 10 air release valves scattered throughout the course.



  10. Wahlin Scott B
    Wahlin Scott B avatar
    3/15/2012 9:03 AM
    Daniel Baker said: Am I the only guy who has a restart program in my operating software? I thought those were standard on VFD systems. I open four heads for 20 minutes via the radio and flip a switch and walk away. The VFD winds slowly and fills the lines over about 30 minutes and then pressures up. When you pay for the electronic brain why touch the manual settings?

    It may be worth noting that we have 10 air release valves scattered throughout the course.


    This is how we do it. It was great going from a Cla-Valve to this.



  11. Keith Fellenstein
    Keith Fellenstein avatar
    0 posts
    3/15/2012 10:03 AM
    Daniel Baker said: Am I the only guy who has a restart program in my operating software? I thought those were standard on VFD systems. I open four heads for 20 minutes via the radio and flip a switch and walk away. The VFD winds slowly and fills the lines over about 30 minutes and then pressures up. When you pay for the electronic brain why touch the manual settings?

    It may be worth noting that we have 10 air release valves scattered throughout the course.


    not standard...wish they were. still would take us at least half day, 16 " main coming out of the house.



  12. Melvin Waldron
    Melvin Waldron avatar
    43 posts
    3/15/2012 11:03 AM
    Heck I don't know if I have that or not, it was all here before me and the one guy who calls on us for pump station service tells me "Hey you know your station well enough". So he only messes with the big electric stuff inside the big panel......

    Did fill mostly slow, once we had blown out a lot of air I did turn it to auto and let it put those last 20 psi by itself, only debris in the foot-valve of some heads.

    I'm pretty happy (and probably lucky too)

    Mel

    Melvin H. Waldron III, CGCS, Horton Smith Golf Course, City of Springfield/Greene County MO

  13. Baker Daniel
    Baker Daniel avatar
    3/19/2012 11:03 AM
    Keith Fellenstein said:
    Daniel Baker said: Am I the only guy who has a restart program in my operating software? I thought those were standard on VFD systems. I open four heads for 20 minutes via the radio and flip a switch and walk away. The VFD winds slowly and fills the lines over about 30 minutes and then pressures up. When you pay for the electronic brain why touch the manual settings?

    It may be worth noting that we have 10 air release valves scattered throughout the course.


    not standard...wish they were. still would take us at least half day, 16 " main coming out of the house.



    Anybody know how many gallons their lines hold? It's an interesting number. At my last job we had a 14" out of the house and 1600 heads. We had some major irrigation issues at the pumphouse and had the irrigation designer figure out how many gallons were in our lines. 95,000 gallons there and we had a similar startup progarm that took about 45 minutes to fill the lines and pressure up.



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